Under certain conditions water along the A-pillar and/or header area above the body side opening will trickle into the vehicle cabin and/or onto an occupant of the associated seat, when a front door, a rear door or combination of both are opened or closed in parallel or independently of each other. This condition is associated on all vehicles, coupes, sedans, cross-over, sport utilities, trucks and exacerbated on vehicles incorporating rear hinged rear doors. Such a door design is particularly useful on super cab pickup trucks where the extra wide side opening is beneficial when entering or loading the cab.
More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 1, when the rear hinged rear door R is closed (note action arrow A), air is forced into the interior compartment. When the front door F is open, this increase in interior air pressure is relieved by air flowing outwardly and upwardly along the header area and A-pillar (note action arrows B). This air movement has a tendency to cause water along the header area H and A-pillar P to trickle from the body through the body side opening O into the cabin C of the vehicle V, potentially landing on an occupant or the seat. This is a very unsatisfactory result for the vehicle operator.
This document relates to a new, simple and relatively inexpensive method and device for addressing and virtually alleviating this problem. More specifically, a drip resistant textured surface feature is provided along the header margin and/or A-pillar above the door. Advantageously, the textured surface is engineered to enhance the surface tension of the water thereby enabling water disturbed by the airflow indicated by action arrow B to form beads that are retained on the surface rather than trickling into the vehicle and causing customer dissatisfaction.